Tape Measure: I Don't Know How to Use It

The best way to read the tape is to take the number multiply by 25 divide by pie, subtract 3.1346 find the square root of the result, then multiply by the log of 11.6 then add the cosine of 56.89 degrees.
When you get the answer disregard it and buy an imperial tape measure
 
Franko said:
When I was in grade school they said we'd convert to metric. All the did was convert to both. Now it takes twice as many rulers and wrenches and spare nuts and bolts to make or repair anything.

I have a question for our metric pals. Do you ever get so your able to recognize what size a bolt or nut is?
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I'm here in the US and I can eyeball most sizes. I guess I have worked with it enough starting with motorcycles and then high performance cars. Now it's pretty easy.
 
woochucker said:
Not something I would own... to me thats a gadget I can do without. Just Saying.
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I bought it because it was a curiosity and dirt cheap ( free or almost, with the rebate). At the time, I thought that it might have possibilities as a super cheap DRO for my table saw. However, it only reads to 1/16" and I usually work to 1/64" so it remains only a curiosity. It has an interesting encoding system. It kind of looks like a bar code and reads out absolute position.

I believe that I used it once in the years that I've had it and that was just because it happened to be handy. As it stands now, the battery is dead and at $4. each, it won't be replaced.
 
Funny thing about Canada, you can't find a metric tape up here and we've been metric since '75. You can get a tape that has both standard and metric (one on either side of the blade which is a pain to use) but if you want to get a pure metric tape you really have to look. Metric has it's strong points; I use it in the winter 'cause water freezing at 0 degrees C makes more sense to me than at 32 F. Then in the summer 27C doesn't seem too hot but 80F does, so I switch back to standard. Same as height, I'm about 5'9'' I can work with that but I have no idea how tall 176cm is. And when you're working with something big like 40 feet or bigger the metric numbers start getting really big. It is certainly not a perfect system as the Europeans would have you think. I was raised with both systems, too, so I guess if all that you know is one or the other that is what you think is best.
 
A lot of the photo equipment I modify and fabricate uses metric. I got pretty familiar with metric working on my motorcycle. But, not using it as much, it is more difficult for me to recognize metric as easily as imperial 6, 8, 10, 1/4, 5/16 and 3/8, without gauging. It seems there are about a dozen different metrics to fill those slots.

I have invested in well over a hundred dollars worth of thread gauges. I have some threaded plate hole and screw gauges, as well as a couple male and female that are strung on cable. I even have one of those that hangs on the wall like they have at good (extinct) hardware stores.
 
I was first exposed to the metric system in physics and chemistry classes back in the sixties. It is used exclusively there. Since then, I have used both, going back and forth between them. Like someone learning a second language, I have to translate from one to the other. Having learned the Imperial system more than sixty years ago, I intrinsically think in Imperial measurement, doing a mental calculation to get the metric equivalent.

Temperature is a bit tricky as it's not a simple ratio. Early on I developed the the method "add 40, multiply or divide by 1.8, subtract 40" (It works because -40ºC = -40ºF). I can do that on in my head. I use the approximation 1mm = .040", as do most of the Asian machine manufacturers and 2.5cm/inch. A liter is a little bigger than a quart and a meter is slightly bigger (10%) than a yard. A kilometer is 5/8ths of a mile and a lb. is slightly less than a kilogram (well, 10% again). This all gets me in the ball park which is usually close enough.

Past that, when I need more accuracy, I know the basic conversion factors and there's always a calculator close at hand. One trick that I use in converting to and from metric is to adjust my digital caliper to the value I want to convert and hit the IN/MM button. A DRO can be used similarly, entering a subdatum point and hitting the IN/MM button.

Eventually, the metric system will win out, largely because the US is trailing behind China in manufacturing and nearly everything coming out of China is metric. Brexit notwithstanding, British pubs will eventually stop selling beer in pints in favor of 50 or 60 centiliters. Wine has already gone that way there. Their pint is kind of crazy anyway, being 20 oz. instead of 16. The pint's a pound, the world around, don'tcha know.;)

With the automotive industry almost entirely metric and most of our food listed in both Imperial and metric, there isn't a lot left. Things like clothing and footwear have been using some strange system which only those in the business understand anyway. The scientific community has been metric for decades. Measurements in the field of electric/electronics have been metric for ages. I expect that the building trades will be among the last holdouts. Buildings are relatively long term and there would have to be an extended period of supplying both systems, metric for new construction and Imperial for replacement purposes.

One way or another, it's coming. We can resist :steamroller:or we can go with the flow:beer:

Cheers!
 
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